Legislators Give Hampton Another Chance, Will Stop Plans to Dissolve Troubled City

Published March 29th, 2014

Loading Video...

HAMPTON, Fla. -- The city of Hampton in Bradford County was given a second chance on Friday, as state lawmakers agreed to drop their plan to dissolve the troubled town of roughly 500 residents.

After a recent state audit discovered numerous cases of corruption and accounting inaccuracies, State Senator Rob Bradley and State Rep. Charles Van Zant gave city leaders 30 days to clean-up their act -- or else Hampton would be dissolved.

With that 30 days set to end on Saturday, the two legislators met with residents and members of the city's government on Friday to review their reorganization plans.

Those plans include dissolving the city's police department, getting rid of the current city council, reducing the city limits back to their original boundaries and using new software to keep better track of the city's finances.

Seeming pleased with what they heard, both Bradley and Van Zant voted at the end of the meeting to abandon their plan to dissolve Hampton and give the city's new leaders time to put their reorganization plan into action.

The city will now hold a special election this September to elect a new city council.

Both Van Zant and Bradley say they plan to hold another delegation meeting after that round of elections.